The Most Merciful Response To An Atrocious Intro E-Mail And Resume We've Ever Seen On Wall Street

Tuesday

Nov 5, 2013 at 1:05 PM

Linette Lopez

This could have been worse — much, much, worse.

A college student completely blew one of the most important moments in anyone's professional career — his introduction to the first 'someone' that could help him get his foot in the door on Wall Street.

In this case, that 'someone' was a Managing Director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The whole mess was documented in the cringe-worthy e-mail exchange below. The kid's resume was also attached, and it was a mess — difficult to read and including zero relevant experience for finance.

Luckily, the MD he e-mailed had mercy. He didn't tell the kid he was a failure, he didn't tell him he'd 'never work in this town again'. Instead, this MD told the kid he'd pretend the e-mail exchange never happened.

It's a gracious thing to do, and when you read the exchange below, you'll see why.

You'll note a few typos in that message. Here's the BAML MD's response.

The e-mail above is polite, succinct and probably the end of the discussion — but the kid presses on.

Now this is the part where the BAML MD throws down what could only be described as some 'real talk'. The kid needs it.

And if that's not bad enough, the kid did send something of a response to the e-mail detailing his typos — a blank e-mail.

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